To test the practical applicability of this method, a simulated crime scene was analyzed, in which blood stains of several ages were deposited. Hyperspectral imaging combined with the proposed analysis provided insight in the absolute age of the blood stains. Additionally, the blood stains were clustered based on their hemoglobin derivative fractions, without the use of a reference dataset.
Results demonstrated that the order of formation of blood stains can be determined, even under unknown environmental circumstances, when no proficient reference dataset is available. These findings are an important step toward the practical implementation of blood stain age estimation in forensic casework.